Don McLeod

(1908 to 1999)

Source: The Age, Wednesday 21 April
1999

Donald William McLeod, one of the first White kids born in
Meekatharra in Western Australia, became committed to justice for
Aborigines at about the age of 29 and from then on devoted his
entire life to their cause. The journalist Duncan Graham declared
in an article in The Age on 2nd May 1996 titled 'Rebel of
the Pilbara' that he was 'the original stirrer, branded a traitor
to his race and culture, a Communist zealot determined to upset the
cosy relationship between pastoralists, government and police and
ensure the "blackfellas" were treated as equals'. Whatever the view
about McLeod, one thing is clear, he lived out his commitment in
the very harshest of physical and political environments, and
developed phenomenal powers of endurance while mostly existing at
the subsistence level of the Aboriginal community that he joined
for the long struggle.

Don's credibility with the people was such that in 1942 they
invited him to attend a large meeting of the desert tribes called
to allow about 200 representatives from 23 different language
groups to discuss ways of radically changing their conditions. One
member of the group later explained: 'We needed a man, and we got
that man, Don McLeod.' Don was appointed by the lawmen to be their
adviser in their quest to escape from conditions of virtual
slavery.

Don and the group engaged in constant political action to
achieve recognition of Aborigines as the beneficial owners of the
land, and independence for themselves. Their first major act was to
plan a strike for better wages and conditions. They achieved a
remarkable feat of organisation when on 1st May 1946 the strike
began: an estimated 600 stockmen walked off about 25 pastoral
stations - an unheard of act of autonomy in an era where the
Aborigines were systematically deprived of land, power, freedom and
respect. The strikers maintained themselves on bush tucker and
income-earning work collecting buffel seed and pearl shell that was
marketed through McLeod's networks of unionists, women's
organisations, churches and others who united to support the group
economically and politically. Later, under McLeod's tutelage, the
group - by then known as the Strelley mob - became miners using
picks, shovels and bare hands. They sold their high-quality metals
overseas, again through Don's networks, and used the proceeds from
all their enterprises to develop businesses, buy cattle stations,
establish an independent school and provide services for their
people.

Don was persecuted, gaoled and ostracised by those in authority.
For many hard years the Strelley mob's rations consisted of two
pairs of shorts and shirts a year, tobacco, flour and tea leaf. Don
camped with the mob, living by himself in a tin shed with a dirt
floor and tea chests for furniture. He remained in touch with world
events by listening to the BBC news on a transistor radio and could
talk the hind leg off a donkey on any topic. He detested
missionaries, Whites and government men, but if a White person's
credentials were accepted he welcomed fellow workers - that is, if
they could keep up with this man who could go without water in the
intense Pilbara heat, stride out over rocks and spinifex with the
speed of the Indigenous people, survive on a meagre diet and feel
no pain. He had no tolerance for those with a weaker
constitution.

In the 1950s Don went to Melbourne at the invitation of the
Council for Aboriginal Rights to speak about the cooperative
movement and Pindan Pty Ltd, which the mob set up. Stan Davey took
him to the Mooroopna, Shepparton, and Cumeroogunja communities
where he shared the principles, goals and methods of the mob with
his Aboriginal audience. In 1961 Jacob Oberdoo, one of the members
of the group, was invited to the Federal Council for Aboriginal
Advancement annual conference in Brisbane to share their story.
Many were inspired by the achievements of this cooperative
venture.

Author: Dr Jan Richardson

Further reading

Don McLeod, How the West was Lost, published by the
author, Port Hedland, 1984